


We aren't Reading Books Anymore

by ElsieMcClay



Series: Voltron Fics [30]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Langst, i cant tell if its angsty or not but its supposed to be, idk - Freeform, its 00:13 guys so this might just be nonsense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 10:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13568577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElsieMcClay/pseuds/ElsieMcClay
Summary: Keith says something that strikes a little too close to home with Lance.





	We aren't Reading Books Anymore

**Author's Note:**

> for anonymous on tumblr

“You’re just some stupid kid that wants to go home to his mom, who, by the way, is probably dead by now. Well, newsflash! Some of us can be doing better things than wallowing in our own sorrows, so why don’t you give that a shot?” Keith growls with more venom than Lance has ever heard in a single person’s voice before. The anger in Lance’s chest breaks like someone hit a pane of glass with a hammer as Keith shouts the words at him, all of them striking spots where Lance knows he’s weak, though Keith might not. He feels his eyes well up with tears, and he almost tells himself off for being weak, but Keith’s words are too loud in his mind as they echo around repeatedly. 

They were all tense, sure, but nothing this bad had happened yet. They were all on edge, just waiting for Lotor and his gang to pop up again, and people had snapped at each other more than once in the last twenty-four hours, in fact, but not yet had anyone been reduced to feeling as crummy as Lance is right this moment. People apologized after snapping, even the minor little snaps or changes in tones that made it seem like they were angrier than they were, but Keith was never good at reading people. He doesn’t know when he crossed the line that’s put into the sand around him when he talks to anyone at all. He supposes it’s because he spent so long in the foster system and was regarded as a freak in almost every place he went and therefore wasn’t granted much human contact until he came into space. 

Lance, on the other hand, is and always has been the voice of reason in the castle and in his home back on earth. He can read almost anyone like the back of his hand, though he can never seem to figure out what it is that Keith is feeling or thinking, which he figures is why he set up what he called a rivalry between the two. Then, he started getting closer to Keith and started getting better at reading him, or he’d think he was getting better only for Keith to throw a major curveball, and Lance would be sent the whole way back to square one. 

They’d just gotten back from some mission that turned out to be a total flop. The team got a tip from some planet, and they went to investigate, and it was a dead end in terms of getting closer to finding Lotor or anything about Lotor. Shiro stormed off the moment Black landed in the hangars, probably to train. Lance had been quiet all day because he was feeling particularly homesick as the parts of the planet they went to looked so much like Cuba it was like he was finally home. He was upset, and Hunk and Pidge had seen enough pictures back at the Garrison to know that the planet was why he was quiet. 

Keith, however, had never so much as left the country, and he’d hardly seen pictures. He was jeering at Lance the whole way back, only to step out of his lion and get a little physical as his insults got worse and worse. Lance stood there and took it, glad he wasn’t going after Hunk or Pidge, and he definitely wouldn’t go after Shiro or Allura, so Lance was the only option left. He guesses he’s the last choice for getting yelled at, too, but he supposes it’s for the best. Hunk is strong, but he can’t take lectures like this, and Pidge is pretty much the same. Lance can take it. 

He can take it until Keith tells him his mom is dead. After that, he finds himself sprinting away with hot tears rolling down his face. Sobs work their way up and out of his throat as he slides against his bedroom door and locks it. He curls up and sobs as the words repeat over and over in his mind. He’d known it was a possibility for as long as they’d been in space, though he never took time to dwell on the thought. He was right not to if this is how he would’ve reacted if he did stay on the idea. 

“Lance,” Keith mumbles through the door. “Lance, I’m sorry.” Lance just cries harder but quieter. “I don’t–I’m bad with people, and I’m impulsive, and I don’t think ‘cause I’m an idiot. A complete and total idiot and I’m sorry. Your mom is fine, especially if she has as much, I dunno…spunk as you do. I’m just–I don’t have any reason to go back, y’know? I guess I’m lucky in that sense.” 

“Yeah,” Lance replies quietly, his voice hoarse from crying. “Yeah, you’re really lucky because it doesn’t hurt when a planet looks just like the place you grew up and want so desperately to go back to,” he spits. Keith sucks in a breath, Lance hears it even through the door. “And I guess you’re right, Keith. I am just a boy who wants to see his mom again, but who knows? Maybe I’ll die before we win this war, or we’ll get back and a million years will have passed on Earth. Maybe I’m selfish and thinking too childishly.” There are a few moments of silence during which Lance thinks Keith got up and left, but he hears shuffling on the other side before Keith talks again.

“Please open the door.” Lance can’t find it in himself to fight back, so he reaches up and unlocks the door. It opens almost immediately, and Lance is gathered up in Keith’s arms as they sit on the floor of Lance’s room, both crying and tired and in need of a motherly figure. “I wanna see my mom, too, you know, but I’m not attached to the idea. I never met her.”

“Mi mama would love you. She loves everyone,” Lance says with a wet chuckle. “She loved her kids the most, though, all eight of us along with their kids. Jeez, even at nearly sixty she still took care of me when I was sick and at home from school. I’m the youngest, you know, and I was supposed to take care of my sister’s kids during winter break this year, but we got sucked into this, and–and,” Lance breaks off with another sob, and Keith’s arms tighten around him. He holds Keith back and wonders what they did to deserve all of this pain.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr at elsiemcclay


End file.
